More Data Needed On Food Prices, Number Of Hungry Worldwide

“…For the last six years, many politicians, global leaders, analysts, and commentators (including me) have argued that higher food prices would push people worldwide into hunger and poverty. … The truth is there may be more than 800 million people going hungry worldwide, but there may be more — or a lot fewer. Until we have better data, our response to that problem will be based on guesswork and theories as much as on hard evidence of where there is a problem and what helps. And as far as we can tell, the global trend toward better nutrition and lower poverty continues unabated — despite rising costs for pizza and burritos…” (4/21).